Optical sighting devices such as riflescopes are often used to aid the aiming of light weapons, such as rifles, pistols, bows, or the like. Such optical sighting devices typically include reticles, which may take various forms, such as cross-hairs, posts, circles, horseshoes, a dot, or other suitable shapes, to help a shooter aim at the target. In addition to riflescopes, reticles are also sometimes included in binoculars, spotting scopes and other optical sighting devices, particularly such devices used by a spotter of a spotter-shooter team to assist a shooter in aiming a weapon using a separate riflescope. Some reticles include various marks, such as optical range finding marks to facilitate estimating a distance to a target of known size, holdover aiming marks for adjusting for the ballistic drop of a projectile for targets located at various ranges from the shooter, and various other marks to assist the shooter in acquiring information, or adjusting for variables relating to weapon inclination, crosswinds, or other shooting conditions.
In conventional optical sighting devices, the reticle is seen by the shooter in silhouette or superimposed over the target image. In some earlier optical sighting devices, engraved/etched lines or embedded fibers were used to create the superimposed reticle patterns (e.g., crosshairs) on the viewed target. Presently, many modern optical sighting devices utilize illuminated displays that provide an illuminated reticle pattern in the optical axis or project the reticle pattern toward an optical element that then redirects the image toward the viewer's eye so that the reticle appears superimposed on the target image when viewed by the user.
The present inventors have identified disadvantages with many modern optical sighting devices. For example, one such disadvantage is that such prior art systems tend to have one or a limited number of reticle patterns defined by collections of a relatively small number of special-purpose display segments. Another disadvantage of such systems is that many use illumination devices (such as LEDs) that produce low-resolution reticles and/or produce visual artifacts that may distract the user. The present inventors have therefore identified a need for an improved optical sighting device capable of providing a relatively large variety of illuminated reticle patterns and aiming features with enhanced brightness, clarity, and resolution. Additional aspects and advantages will be apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.